Russia

There are three components to understanding contemporary Russia and its relations to the United States. They congregate around an emerging criminal oligarchy centered around Putin, an emerging nascent civil society and a brutal civilizational conflict between an Orthodox Russian Christianity which views itself as the embodiment of a 'Third Rome' versus a Chechen Islamic insurgency in the Caucasus.

Russia is witnessing the birth of a new political tradition unheard of since the Bolshevik Revolution (October 1917). A deeply, moral transformation from within will takes decades to consolidate, but an enlightened and morally anchored democratic citizenship has begun to emerge throughout Russia.

Russia's domestic, Islamic insurgency is not contained within Russia's southern flank along the northern Caucasus. The insurgency has blossomed all along the upper Volga River, it cannot be contained. The reasons reside in Russia's political economy and its consequential demographic impact. Currently, Russian demographics are in a death spiral, primarily due to its faltering economy. Projected Muslim population throughout Russia is expected to comprise about 20% of Russia's total population.

Throughout the late 19th century, an emerging Russian Empire was home to the most progressive Islamic modernist movement in the world. It ended with Stalin and his genocidal campaign to deliberately murder the entire Russian illustrious Muslim intelligentsia. The Soviet ant-Muslim strategy has never succeeded and its unintended social, political and demographic consequences are now obvious.